Born in East Germany, he studied acting and painting in Berlin. After designing As You Like It in Stuttgart (1961), John Cranko commissioned him to design Romeo and Juliet; between 1962 and 1973 he designed most of Cranko’s ballets, including Swan Lake, Onegin, R.B.M.E., Poème de l’extase and Spuren. He has also designed for John Neumeier (Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Sleeping Beauty and La Dame aux camélias) and for The Royal Opera (Un ballo in maschera, Die Zauberflöte), Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, La Scala, Milan, and the Bayreuth and Salzburg festivals and the Metropolitan Opera, New York.
Royal Opera House Covent Garden Foundation, a charitable company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales (Company number 480523) Charity Registered (Number 211775)